The Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series at Road America this Independence Day weekend. This is one of my favorite road courses on the schedule. The Xfinity Series always puts on a good show in Wisconsin and it should be even better this year. The field for Saturday’s race is absolutely stacked. This will give us a lot of options for our DraftKings lineups. The Henry 180 can be seen Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. (Most of the rest of the Xfinity Series races are on USA Network and streamed on Peacock this year).
XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE RESULTS
The Xfinity Series had their regular practice schedule this week. The teams were broken down into two groups and they had 20 minutes to dial in their cars for the race. That is not enough time for the drivers to make many long runs on a 4-mile track. The cars were impounded after qualifying so the practice speeds should give us an idea of the speed the teams will start the race with Saturday.
* AJ Allmendinger had brake problems in practice so he did not qualify the car. He will start 37th Saturday and be scored from the last starting position. He is going to be super popular (at least 70% owned). It will be tough to win this week without Allmendinger in your lineup.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at Road America…
DRAFTKINGS POINTS ON ROAD COURSES (2021 – 2022)
The race at Road America will be the second road course race in 2022 for the Xfinity Series (COTA and Portland). The race in Portland was ugly because of the heavy rain during the race and many of the drivers had a hard time keeping their cars on the track. We can still learn a bit from that race. I am focusing the picks on the two road course races this year and the six road course races last year. That gives us eight races of data to figure out which drivers consistently score well in DraftKings contests on the road courses.
Here are the average Draftkings Points on the road course in 2021 – 2022…
STRATEGY FOR ROAD AMERICA
The race at Road America is scheduled for 45 laps (182-miles). That means there are only 11.25 points available for leading laps and 20.25 points for fastest laps (31.5 total dominator points). The trend at Road America is for the race to have three dominators. These three drivers typically score between 6.6 and 3.4 dominator points. That is not enough points to chase this week. We must focus our picks on finishing points Saturday. My strategy will be to find six drivers who can finish in the top-15.
AJ Allmendinger won both road course races this year. He will have a lot more competition this week. Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon and John H. Nemechek are in the field this week and each will have decent cars. (Larson’s car is a full Hendrick Motorsport car this week). Road course aces Miguel Paludo and Andy Lally will also have a good chance to run up front at Road America. We cannot count out Xfinity Series regulars Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry and Daniel Hemric. Each of these drivers runs well on the road courses too. This field is stacked so we need to get creative with our lineups.
The popular lineup construction this week will be the “stars and scrubs” lineup. Most people will pair AJ Allmendinger with one or two higher priced drivers and then fill out the lineup with some cheap drivers. This type of lineup should score well since there are so many good cheap drivers to pair with Allmendinger (Jeb Burton, Preston Pardus, Sage Karam and Brandon Brown). I will have some “stars in scrubs” lineup in my tournament contests but the contrarian lineup construction will be to build a “balanced lineup”. I like trying to get six drivers to finish in the top-12. A lineup like: Noah Gragson ($10,300), Cole Custer ($10,000), Miguel Paludo ($8,500), Myatt Snider ($7,800), Riley Herbst ($7,100), Jeb Burton ($5,800) should score well this week. Each of these drivers has the ability to finish in the top-12 Saturday.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR ROAD AMERICA
CORE DRIVERS FOR ROAD AMERICA
Top-Tier Drivers: Kyle Larson ($11,800), AJ Allmendinger ($11,300), Ty Gibbs ($11,100), Noah Gragson ($10,300), Cole Custer ($10,000), Tyler Reddick ($9,700), Austin Hill ($9,500)
Value Drivers: Daniel Hemric ($8,800), Brandon Jones ($8,700), John H. Nemechek ($8,600), Miguel Paludo ($8,500), Andy Lally ($7,900), Myatt Snider ($7,800), Ty Dillon ($7,700), Riley Herbst ($7,100), Brett Moffitt ($6,800), Preston Pardus ($6,600)
Punt Plays: Brandon Brown ($5,900), Jeb Burton ($5,800), Patrick Gallagher ($4,600), Josh Williams ($4,500)
DFS EXAMPLE LINEUPS
Each year I get told the same thing… I used your lineup and I did not win the big jackpot. That is because 25-50 other people copied and pasted my lineup too and you had to split the pot 25-50 ways. The lineups posted this year will be examples on how to create a lineup for the race. You can copy and paste, but just know a lot of other people will have the same lineup. (It is OK to copy and paste the Cash Contest lineup). There is plenty of information in this article to help you create your own unique lineup to give you a better chance of winning.
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
AJ ALLMENDINGER ($11,300): Allmendinger is a lock for all cash contests. We all know he is one of the best road course racers in the Xfinity Series and now he starts 37ths. He should be a lock to score 20-25 place differential points and be the highest scoring driver in DraftKings Contests.
TYLER REDDICK ($9,700): Reddick is driving the No. 48 car for Big Machine Racing. Do not get confused; this is a Richard Childress Racing car. Reddick drove this car to Victory Lane at Texas so the car has speed. Reddick starts ninth and should have a good chance to finish in the top-five Saturday.
DANIEL HEMRIC ($8,800): Hemric has a fast car and a poor starting position. That is a recipe for success in DraftKings Contests. Hemric posted the sixth-fastest lap in practice but he got loose in qualifying so he starts deep in the field. Hemric finished sixth in the last road course race. He should have a good chance to finish in the top-10 Saturday.
MYATT SNIDER ($7,800): Snider only posted the 24-fastest speed in practice and he qualified 32nd in the race. I am not worried about his practice speed or his starting spot. Snider looked horrible in practice and qualifying in the other two road course races this year too and Snider finished sixth at COTA and second at Portland. He should be a lock for all Cash Contests this week.
PRESTON PARDUS ($6,600): I am going to take a chance with Pardus. Boris Said is his spotter this week and Kim Coon from NBC Sports asked him, “What advice did you give Pardus?” Said replied, “Nothing. He is a better road course driver than I am.” Pardus finished 14th at COTA. He should be able to move up 5-8 spots at Road America.
JEB BURTON ($5,800): Burton is my favorite cheap option Saturday. He is an underrated road course driver. He learned a lot from being teammates with AJ Allmendinger last year. Burton posted the 13th fastest speed in practice but got off the track in qualifying. He should move up 8-10 spots this week.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
KYLE LARSON ($11,800): I know it is messing with fire to fade AJ Allmendinger Saturday but I wanted to post one of my lineups where I will fade him (I will play Allmendinger in 70% of the lineups). I will pivot to Larson. His car is an old Cup series car from Hendric Motorsports and it was prepared by Hendric Motorsports. This race could easily turn into the “Kyle Larson Show” Saturday.
COLE CUSTER ($10,000): Custer may have the fastest car in the field. He posted the fastest speed in practice but over-drove one of the corners in qualifying. Now Custer will start fourth Saturday. He won in the No. 7 car at Auto Club so you know this car is not a regular SS Green Light Racing car. It was built and prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing. I would not be surprised if Custer won at Road America. He has done it before.
TYLER REDDICK ($9,700): I am stacking the Cup Series drivers in this lineup. All of the Richard Childress Racing cars qualified in the top-10 so they have speed. Reddick is one of the best road course racers in this field. He should finish in the top-five Saturday.
MYATT SNIDER ($7,800): I really like Snider this week and that is why I have him in the cash and Tournament Contest lineups Saturday. He has a history of qualifying poorly and finishing up front at the road courses. He should be a lock to move up 10-15 spots this week and score 35 -39 DraftKings Points.
BRANDON BROWN ($5,900): Jeb Burton will be the popular pick from the $5K range since he was fast in practice. I will pivot to Brown. The No. 66 car did not have much speed in practice but Brown is good at staying out of trouble and finishing in the top-20. Brown finished 12th at Portland and 20th at COTA. He will score well from the 36th spot if he can finish 20th Saturday.
PARKER GALLAGHER ($4,600): I do not expect a lot from Gallagher at Road America, but I do not think he will hurt the lineup. Gallagher started 30th and finished 22nd at COTA. He scored 28 DK Points in that race. I just need him to do that again.
Good Luck today!
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